Seattle Bagel Showdown: Old Salt vs. Mt. Bagel
Will we see a Seattle bagel ranking shakeup after these two spots go head-to-head?
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Old Salt and Mt. Bagel took very different paths to the top of my Seattle bagel rankings.
Mt. Bagel wasn’t even supposed to be here. The mega-hyped online-only bagel business left town two years ago, only to magically return soon after to claim its crown. While I was still a huge fan, the bagels were just a little too soft to reach the top of the list. They settled into my No. 3 spot, remaining there upon the second review.
Old Salt was born out of the pandemic and, somehow, the bagel pop-up run out of a seafood restaurant cemented itself as one of the best in the city. Consistency has been a concern on subsequent trips but never to the point where they were in danger of dropping far. They were No. 3 before Mt. Bagel returned but have been locked in at No. 4 ever since.
In recent weeks, I’ve gone back to Bagel Oasis and confirmed they’re still my top bagel in town. I’ve also revisited Little Market to verify they’re my No. 2 pick. So it seems only fair to take another look at the next two bagels on the list and determine if they’re still ranked correctly. What better way to put them to the test than to go head-to-head?
Let’s see how they scored…
And if you want to know how I define a good bagel, you can find that here.
WHAT I ORDERED FROM BOTH PLACES
Everything bagel with scallion cream cheese
Plain bagel as-is.
While not technically a Second Schmears review, we’ll use a pretty similar structure in this review process. I’ll break down the similar bagels from each shop, see how they compare, and take a look at how things might be different from previous reviews.
We begin with some first impressions. The two bagels couldn’t be more different in terms of shape. The Old Salt bagels were wide with large holes in the middle while the Mt. Bagel ones were compact mounds. Neither choice is good or bad, but it made for quite the visual contrast. One thing that did seem apparent to me is that while they looked exceedingly different, they all looked pretty solid.
The top of the Mt. Bagel plain was firm to the touch and a little crisp, somewhat more than before. The bake was a dark brown full of blisters and bubbles. As for Old Salt’s plain, it was also firm and slightly crisp. The golden brown coloring was darker on one side than the other but the bagel was blistery and bubbly all over.
When I flipped over the bagels, the differences became very clear. The Mt. Bagel bottom was extremely soft. Though some crevices existed, there was no texture to be found. Meanwhile, the Old Salt bottom had a slight char in places from being burnt slightly. There was also a prominent Cornmeal Ring of Doom (CRoD). But the bottom was very crisp to the touch. While Mt. Bagel’s bottom visually looked more traditional, the Old Salt bottom seemed much more appealing to bite into (to me, at least).
The Mt. Bagel one was a tough rip though the bagel re-expanded afterward. There was a slight crunch on the chew thanks to the crispness on top. The interior was fluffy but not pillowy and it boasted a solid bagel smell. Due to the soft bottom, it ended up being a little rubbery but still very good.
Meanwhile, the Old Salt was very crisp on the rip, with crackles all over. The bagel did collapse on the rip and bite. A little bit of the salt from another bagel transferred over to the plain and I have to say that it elevated things. The slightly burned bottom helped create a delicious, crunchy shell around a very fluffy interior. All in all a very tasty bite.
The Old Salt everything bagel unfortunately lost some of its seeding on the way home, but there was still enough going on, including salt, AS GOD INTENDED, to provide the requisite flavor. The bagel itself was a golden brown with a firm top and a very knockable bottom. The bottom also featured some of those burned bits that we saw on the plain.
Meanwhile, the Mt. Bagel everything came correct with a very heavy seed hand. The top was very firm but once again the bottom was extremely soft, presumably based on the way they’re baked. The color was golden on top and the bottom did have some decent seeding, at least.
The Old Salt bagel offered a very crispy bite once again. While the bagel was slightly collapsable and some of the seeding had been lost, there was a depth of flavor here that I really appreciated and kept coming back to. It was a very balanced everything bagel bite.
The Mt. Bagel one made for a big bite given the heft of the bagel. The overall seeding was strong, but it leaned a little towards the sesame and poppy seeds. While it was a solid bite for sure, I did find myself feeling like the flavor was slightly off in some way. That may have been because I ate it after the Old Salt one, but I think perhaps the seeding was a little unbalanced.
When Mt. Bagel returned to Seattle, I presumed heading into that initial review that they’d end up at No. 1 but they didn’t. Then, when I did my Second Schmear review of Little Market last week, I assumed that Mt. Bagel might overtake them for the No. 2 spot, but that turned out to not be the case. I went into this head-to-head thinking that it would probably be a close call but Mt. Bagel would prevail. However, based on my experience eating all these bagels, I think I’m going to swap them in the rankings.
Mt. Bagel remains great and I don’t want it to seem like I’m not a fan, but I can’t deny that I enjoyed the Old Salt ones more. The flavor, the slight char, the crispiness…it all came together in a pretty spectacular way that left me thinking about the bagels a day later.
As always, it makes me wonder about lines, sell-outs, and hype and why some places get those things and others don’t. Mt. Bagel’s long lines remain a constant. Meanwhile, you can usually roll up to Old Salt anytime and have a bagel in your hand in a few minutes (while also being one of the best bagel values in the city). Again, this isn’t me saying Mt. Bagel isn’t good (it’s very good and I would argue Seattle’s Top 4 all hold their own) but rather it’s something I think about a lot as the bagel scene at large is often defined more by hype than anything else.
MY SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS SO FAR (11/12/23)
OUTSIDE SEATTLE BAGEL RANKINGS
The Bagelry (Bellingham)
Howdy Bagel (Tacoma)
Coquette Bake Shop (Bainbridge Island)
Good Bagels Cafe (Anacortes)
Otherside Bagel Co. (Bellingham)
Whidbey Island Bagel Factory (Mt. Vernon, Whidbey Island)
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What cream cheese did you get at old salt? I don’t believe they have true scallion. Did you get the herb?
(I like their chili cream cheese a bunch but I’m a heathen who needs everything to have some heat)
Was just reading, Sean, your previous reviews and noticed that some mentioned prices and others did not. I would like to see more pricing included in your great reviews. Thanks.